U.S. President Donald Trump is still harping about his claim that he and the Republican Party have suffered from massive voter fraud. In the presidential election in 2016, he had over three million fewer votes in the general election than Democratic nominee Hilary Clinton did, yet he had more votes than she did in the Electoral College, which determines the winner. Ever since, Trump has alleged that Ms. Clinton’s higher count in the general election was the result of voter fraud and that without it he would have had a higher count than she did. Even though Trump has made this claim so many times since he has been president, he never provides any evidence to substantiate such wild claims. Even if there was any substantial voter fraud in the 2016 election, how does he know that he suffered from it rather than Ms. Clinton?
Ms. Ellen Weintraub is the chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission. On Friday, Weintraub sent President Trump a letter asking him for evidence to substantiate his claim. She may be the nation’s #1 authority on the subject of the veracity of our elections.
On Monday, in an interview with CNN, Weintraub spoke out against President Trump’s constant allegations of voter fraud. Granted, Ms. Weintraub is a Democrat. But that means nothing if she is an honest person.
Weintraub said, “There is no evidence of rampant voter fraud in 2016 or really in any previous election. People have studied this. Academics have studied this. Lawyers have studied this. The government has studied this. Democrats have studied this. Republicans have studied this. And no one can find any evidence of rampant voter fraud either historically or particularly in the 2016 elections.” Did you hear that Mr. President? Probably not because she didn’t say it on Fox News.
Weintraub continued, explaining the obvious, that the president’s statements alleging voter fraud cause “people to lose faith” in our elections and therefore “question the results.” She added, “Facts matter, and people of America need to be able to believe what their leaders tell them. It is damaging to our democracy to spread information that … is baseless. To be suggesting to people that if the candidate they choose doesn’t win that it is because of fraud, that undermines our democracy. It undermines people’s faith, and once that faith is broken, it is very hard to build up again.”
Indeed, many Americans believe Trump about this, which is foolish on their part because he furnishes no evidence. I can’t think of anything more damaging to our democracy than not believing our electoral system is trustworthy.
The United States of America needs more people of stature like Ellen Weintraub to speak out boldly against President Trump when he makes such preposterous, unsupportable, and thus erroneous statements, such as about our elections. When he does such things, President Trump does not Make America Great Again, but does just the opposite.
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